This is my next article for @pete's „moan day contest“. A big cheers for holding this competition. If somebody wants to join our creative writing battle please check out pete's post, where he explains all about it.
And here comes the story...
Everything used to be easier.
Football was still football, and at least you still had the feeling that everything was done in a somehow appropriate way. Of course we already complained about too high salaries and transfer fees in the last millennium too, but nevertheless we still believed that even clubs that didn't belong to football elite had a chance to land the big coup.
In hindsight it feel the start of the Champions League was the cut which cemented the class differences. The top clubs in Europe now want to stay among themselves and spread the money, which continues to flow abundantly even in times of financial and Euro crises, only on a small scale. All those rules and regulations on the part of UEFA and also FIFA, now only seem to be intended to conceal and legitimise the smuggish behaviour of the top teams.
That's nothing really new either, but some simply hopeless football fans really imagined that these rules would of course also apply to all clubs. If the Swiss team FC Sion was affected, and if they were excluded from European competitions, then the big earners would also have to watch out, i.e. the clubs that have so much money due to unlimited cash injections from the Arab and Eastern European regions that they don't even know which player to buy.
But, as we could read again last week in a major German online magazine, there seem to be clubs to which these rules of "financial integrity" should not apply. And who is surprised to find names like Manchester City or Paris St. Germain? Both clubs have sold their souls to the Middle East and are said to have violated UEFA regulations on a massive scale.
Consequences? Ridiculous fines which these clubs pay out of petty cash. Why isn't the UEFA applying the same standards as for FC Sion? The current FIFA President, Infantino, who was still UEFA General Secretary at the time, is said to have given ManCity and PSG a secret advantage and ensured that both got away with laughable alibi penalties.
You don't bite the hand that feeds you. And Infantino always seems to have been the lap dog of his masters. As soon as they give him a few bones in the form of fresh banknotes, he immediately wags his tail and starts snapping at all the critics. The fact that he is said to have violated UEFA's own rules doesn't seem to have hurt him at all in his career.
Dog don't eat dog.
Who does the whole thing affect and harm?
The competition, which is more and more dominated by a very few teams. For the smaller clubs it becomes more and more difficult to keep up with the so-called top clubs. The sporty goes beyond the financial, and the less big names have a huge disadvantage there. Because the exclusive club of the (self-chosen) ones wants to remain among itself and to divide the big money only "among brothers". There is no other way to explain the recurring plans of a European Super League. One team is "born" into this super league of the enlightened, or some other team, if they have the luck and good advocates, tolerated on probation.
Fortunately, as a fan you do have the opportunity to escape this nonsense. Just look at the die-hard football fans who are already avoiding the upper leagues and the Champions League. If money is the only thing left to rule, sport will be thrown behind. And if those high-ranking football officials aren't interested in listening, hopefully they'll soon be woken up by a some very cold showers. I'm talking empty stadiums, less merchandise revenue and fewer SK-channel subscriptions. Well, I am still allowed to dream.
For many fans, football means life. And they don't want to see them being led through the ring by club owners and officials as mere consumers. If fans have sacrificed so much time of their life and so much heart blood for their club, they simply do not want to accept how football is sold off to the highest bidder and flogged to Arab princes or Russian oligarchs for better or worse. The new owners see and treat the club which they acquired just as a hobby, where only they are allowed to make decisions and which can be dumped and sold off again in case of displeasure and disagreement.
The fans remain and suffer, and have to watch helplessly as their great love is being alienated and abused for non-sport purposes.
Nobody would like to have his great love sold away, but as a little fan we usually don't have any say and have to comply with the club policy, which often isn't in the supporter's spirit, but only for the big business.
Fair competition now seems to be officially dead, even though FIFA and UEFA of course take a completely different stance. Hopefully more and more football fans will wake up and raise their voices. For football, against rip-offs and boundless commercialisation, and against being spoofed again and again!
Keep your heads up high, dear football fan!
頑張ってください Ganbatte kudasai!
(Japanese cheering, which can be translated like, „Hold on“ or „Do your best“)
Thanks to everybody who came over and stopped here to read. And best luck to all other entries.
Cheers to everybody, from a German stranded in alien lands!
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